Persuasive Essays Are Pointless

This essay Persuasive Essays Are Pointless has a total of 1360 words and 6 pages.
Persuasive Essays Are Pointless

There is no logical reason to write a persuasive essay for an English class. Persuasive essays definitely do not need to be a requirement for high school students.

The definition of “persuade” in Webster’s New College Dictionary is: To induce one to believe or do something; to argue into an opinion or procedure; to plead with, urge. I have always thought that someone who let his own opinion be changed by someone else is a person who lacks a strong will. I understand that some people have a certain talent for convincing other people, but I personally would not change my mind about a subject unless I was unsure about that subject in the first place.

I became aware of one personal trait when writing this paper -- that is I do not really care about much. I have no intention of letting other people know about the few things that I do care about either. I found it pointless to try to write a persuasive essay about a subject for which I do not care. The only thing I could think to try to convince people to do was to refuse to write a persuasive essay ever again. I faced a kind of moral paradox with this, though. If I wrote a persuasive essay telling people not to write persuasive essays, what kind of example would I be? I was convinced that I was not going to do this paper, but in a showing of my own lack of will, I was bribed into writing this essay. (I find myself getting bribed into doing a lot of schoolwork these days.) I realize that teachers would be angry about this somewhat counterproductive essay, but nevertheless students should refuse to write persuasive essays unless their own will convinces them to do so.

People of my age do not really have many reasons to complain. Most persuasive essays written by adolescents are fluff in the eyes of authority anyway. Sure, you could write a persuasive essay about plenty of subjects. For example, “Kids should be allowed to skateboard anywhere they want.” It’s a perfectly fine essay for someone who really cares about it. The problem is that most of the authorities who would decide where a youth could skateboard feel that skateboarding is useless. Adults have a tendency to look at things in the long run, and fighting over skateboarding does not make any sense in the long run. How many 16 year olds have plans of skateboarding for the rest of their life? The idea of a 30 year old skateboarding around town causes me to laugh very loudly, even when I am by myself. It seems pointless, and maybe even infeasible, to argue about a subject you know you will not care about in a few years time.

Casino gambling has been a subject of many editorials in the major newspapers. If a teenager were to write an essay about casino gambling, it would be an utter waste of time. If you really want to gamble you do not need a casino to do it. The funds raised by casinos do not even reach the city where I live. So why argue about casino gambling?

Most normal teenagers should not care about abortion, assisted suicide, and topics of that nature, yet they write persuasive essays about these subjects. The reason is that they have to in order to get a good grade in that class. A teenager might care about a persuasive essay about legalizing hemp, but in that paper he would never express his real opinion. I do not think any teenager cares that hemp is a good cash crop, or that it can be used in rope, or to make clothes. The truth is that teenagers want to smoke weed, preferably in front of adults, and do it all legally. The driving privilege would seem to be a good thing to write about, but how many adults wake up in the morning excited because they get to drive to work? Increasing your curfew would be a good thing to convince your parents to do. So why write a paper about it, then hand the paper to your English teacher? It does not

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